{"id":992,"date":"2019-08-21T19:00:59","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T00:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/abigaylefranklin.com\/wordpress\/?p=197"},"modified":"2020-08-08T16:31:45","modified_gmt":"2020-08-08T23:31:45","slug":"louse-y-job-back-to-school-at-la-jollas-hair-fairies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/?p=992","title":{"rendered":"LOUSE-Y JOB: Working as a Lice Fairy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By COREY LEVITAN<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comb I\u2019m running through the hair of a 7-year-old boy has two sesame seeds on it. Both are dark brown and moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have hated nit-picking before, but never like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cComb at more of an angle,\u201d I\u2019m instructed by Bianca Ocon. \u201cFront to back, then side to side.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Ocon, 26, from Golden Hill, is the assistant manager and one of five lice fairies at Hair Fairies, 5727 La Jolla Blvd. The L.A.-based chain \u2014 which is in 10 cities, with La Jolla being their only San Diego location \u2014 resembles a standard hair salon except without the floor sweepings and with the word \u201clice\u201d on its storefront sign. Although most in the lice-fairying business are also trained hair stylists, Ocon says she was offered the job four years ago because she knew a former manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never worked with hair before,\u201d she admits. \u201cI was looking for a job and that was pretty much it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are good parts to it, she insists, which include helping people, meeting tourists from around the world, and interacting with kids. (Ocon is currently enrolled in the child development program at San Diego City College and says she plans to become a preschool teacher.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the San Diego School District resumes classes Monday, Aug. 26, Hair Fairies is crawling with clients who suspect they might be crawling. From 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., more than 20 (mostly grade-school children and their concerned parents) enter for appointments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My client and his mother are vacationing nearby from out of town. She suspected lice, she said, when my client couldn\u2019t stop stratching his head at the beach a few days earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut then I looked and figured it was just sand, since it gets everywhere,\u201d she said, \u201cor I guess maybe I hoped it was just sand.\u201d She made the appointment for their last day visiting La Jolla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The bigger spots on the lower right of this photo are lice, the smaller spots their eggs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At first, my client\u2019s mother declined my request to donate her child\u2019s head to journalism. But when I tried on the only spare uniform Ocon had in back (an extra-small) and slipped on the fairy wings my 8-year-old daughter leant me from her costume chest, they laughed hard enough to cave in. (The 20 percent discount offered by the salon\u2019s owner helped, too.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of the 80 percent (on average) of Hair Fairies clients screening \u201clice-positive\u201d requires one-to-three hours to be combed completely clean of the bugs and their eggs (nits). Running $85 per hour, the treatment utilizes lice combs and Hair Fairies\u2019 \u201cNit Zapping Clenz Cream,\u201d whose label claims to loosen the glue that lice use to fasten their nits to human hair. A follow-up appointment is necessary three-to-four days later to remove all nits that aren\u2019t visible yet. (When freshly laid, they are transparent.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re thinking this is overkill since lice shampoo is only $15 at Vons, a recent Consumer Reports article cautioned that most lice have developed immunity to the pyrethrin and pyrethroid insecticides in those shampoos. As many as 75 to 95 percent of the lice collected in recent U.S. studies are now \u201csuper lice,\u201d according to the article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou just got 10 more nits,\u201d Ocon congratulates me as she rubs my lice comb on a fresh towel at her station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The count so far is 100 \u2014 and I have no idea if this is a little or a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about normal,\u201d Ocon replies. \u201cHe\u2019s had it for about a month.\u201d She can tell because they almost always start with one and progress predictably. (\u201cThat means he got it at camp,\u201d my client\u2019s mother guesses.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spotting lice and their smaller nits has become such a superpower for Ocon, she frequently spots them on people outside the salon. The first time she said anything, on line at the supermarket, the little girl\u2019s mother made an angry scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s why I don\u2019t say anything anymore,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ocon will occasionally treat someone who has let things explode into a 500-bug situation \u2014 six months or more after the first louse checked into their hair hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a lot,\u201d she says, suggesting that every parent of a small child check everyone in the family once or twice a month, so it never gets so out of control. (To repel lice, Ocon recommends tea-tree oil, which she says they hate, cut with either olive or coconut oil, since straight tea-tree oil burns.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 6 and 12 million lice infestations are reported every year in the United States among children ages 3 to 11. But the number has to be much higher because … well, would you <\/em>report your child having lice to an authority?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lice have given humankind companionship for many more eons than even dogs. The first human-exclusive species developed 5 million years ago and never left us. Anyone can get lice, not just dirty people. Yet society programs us to make that connection. For instance, \u201ccooties,\u201d now playground-speak for germs or an imaginary disease, originally meant lice. \u201cCrummy\u201d referred to the crumb-like eggs in infested hair. And \u201clousy\u201d is so obvious, I just blew your mind right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Blanca
Blanca Ocon is a superhero whose superpower is spotting lice and their nits.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This stigma is why I was asked to keep all identifying information about my client out of this story by his mother. And it\u2019s why Ocon refuses to tell all but her closest friends and family members what she does for a living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI tell them I work in a medical clinic, which is true sort of,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And revealing that she\u2019s a lice fairy to a significant other is, according to Ocon, a fourth-date occurrence \u201cat least.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not that she\u2019s embarrassed, Ocon explains, \u201cit\u2019s just that it usually leads to an argument with someone who doesn\u2019t know how lice are spread.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tons of people think the bugs can jump or fly from one head to the next, she says, which isn\u2019t true. They can only spread by head-to-head contact or \u2014 way more rarely \u2014 close contact with an object or body part very recently in contact with a lice-infested head. That\u2019s why Ocon doesn\u2019t even bother removing lice wearing a head covering or gloves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know enough now not to touch my fingers to my hair,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wait … now?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, I got lice from this job once,\u201d she admits. \u201cI don\u2019t know how, but it was when I first started, so I must have touched my hair with my fingers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the point at which I sprinted to CVS so I could finish the job with latex gloves and the only head covering I could find there \u2014 a women\u2019s rubber-ducky shower cap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A little more than two hours after his treatment began, my client\u2019s final nit is picked by Ocon. Mother and son are instructed to make a follow-up appointment at the Hair Fairies in their hometown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ask Ocon to rate me as potential fairy material \u2014 and not to sugar-coat it, since I\u2019m seriously considering my options should this journalism thing stop working out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou were actually pretty good,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My daughter\u2019s wings are now earned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 To schedule an appointment at Hair Fairies, call (619) 728-5423. hairfairies.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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[pl_row][pl_col col=12] By COREY LEVITAN The comb I\u2019m running through the hair of a 7-year-old boy has two sesame seeds on it. Both are dark brown and moving. I have hated nit-picking before, but never like this. \u201cComb at more of an angle,\u201d I\u2019m instructed by Bianca Ocon. \u201cFront to back, then side to side.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[167],"class_list":["post-992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-la-jolla-light"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=992"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1156,"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions\/1156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coreylevitan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}